the long-awaited sequel to guardians of thegalaxy revisited everything fans loved about the first film, while moving the story forwardin a wild and imaginative way — and critics and audiences alike agree that it was oneof marvel's most fun movies to date. and yet, even in an altogether terrific followup,there are still some weird plot holes, quirky easter eggs, and continuity questions thatleft us scratching our heads while the end credits rolled. yeah, it's all small potatoes compared tothe movie's winning qualities, but here are all the dumb things from guardians of thegalaxy vol. 2 that left us feeling a little... unsettled.
star lord's tracking device from his outfit to his entertainment system,star-lord is all about the eighties — including when it comes to the tech he whips out inthis opening scene. this vintage mattel football video game hasbeen rewired to work as a tracking device, but where did it come from? there are only two options: one, that quillstumbled upon it during his travels around the galaxy, which would be a weird coincidenceto say the least. or two, maybe he had it on him when he waskidnapped from the earth as a kid — but unlike his walkman, he wasn't too sentimentalabout this toy to repurpose it into a useful
piece of tech. why are the guardians doing the sovereigns'dirty work? this big action set piece pitting the guardiansagainst a space monster known as an abelisk was such an amazing scene, you can almostignore the obvious question: why were the guardians there in the first place? the sovereign leader offers a reason — "we could not risk the lives of our own sovereigncitizens." — but they wouldn't have to; as we findout shortly, they own an entire fleet of remote-controlled ships that seem perfectly equipped for a joblike this.
what prompted them to punt this job to a shadygroup of misfits like the guardians? we may never know. ego's relationship with mantis director james gunn wanted his sequel to includesome characters from the comics that didn't make the cut the first time around, and mantis,who has a long and storied history with the guardians, was an obvious choice. but to fit her in, gunn had to tweak her story— so in the movie, she's basically an indentured adopted daughter to ego, using her empathicpowers to help him sleep at night. wait, what?
ego is an ancient, powerful celestial being— and he needs an empath to sleep at night? how did he sleep in the thousands and thousandsof years before mantis came along? and why would he let her, the only personwho knew his true intentions, hang out unchaperoned with the guardians where she could spill thebeans at any time? well, whatever. maybe ego can't just manifest a supply ofambien the way he manifested an entire planet, and maybe his god-like status made him a littleoverconfident about his nefarious plan. but most importantly, maybe we're so psychedto have mantis in this movie that her backstory doesn't really need to hold up to scrutiny.
who's your hasselhoff? in this film, we learn that quill keeps apic of knight rider-era david hasselhoff in his pocket, because as a fatherless kid, heused to tell people the hoff was his real dad — a subplot that leads to this crowd-pleasingcameo from hasselhoff as one of ego's various avatars. there's just one problem: this hoff is a seniorcitizen, whereas quill's aspirational dad was the strapping young hoff of the 1980s. in the context of the story, and for maximumemotional impact on quill, ego should have appeared as that version of hasselhoff.
but if that was going to make the differencebetween working with the hoff directly versus recreating his younger self using cgi, it'snot hard to see why the filmmakers preferred the real thing. the truth about quill's mom ego is still making a hard pitch for quillto join him when he also spills a horrifying secret: he's the one who gave quill's momcancer, a fact he reveals to his son while also trying to woo him over to the dark side. but for some strange reason, learning thatego is responsible for the worst trauma of his life doesn't make quill feel like teamingup with him — an outcome so predictable
that any celestial being worth his salt should'veseen it coming. and equally inexplicable is why ego botheredto off quill's mother at all. what gives, dude? "i returned to earth to see her three times. and i knew, if i returned a fourth, i'd neverleave." that's his story, but we don't buy it. everything we know about ego suggests he'sa raging sociopath who doesn't care about anyone — and since he planned all alongto kidnap quill from earth, taking mom out of the equation seems pointless.
plus, ego has been alive for millions of years,so what's the big rush? why not just be happy for 40 or 50 years andthen complete the masterplan once she dies of old age or something? of course, this is still an important momentin terms of establishing ego as a cut-and-dried bad guy and giving quill a good reason towant to destroy him, but it's one of a handful that doesn't make narrative sense. no continuity for old marvel the timeline of the marvel cinematic universehas always been kind of fuzzy, but guardians of the galaxy volume 2 represents a real missedopportunity for mcu continuity.
here's the deal: ego's attempt to take controlof the earth occurs around the same time as films like captain america: civil war andthe abc series agents of s.h.i.e.l.d. surely the mcu's top crimefighters would havenoticed the giant tide of alien goo engulfing half of missouri — and a crossover cameoin either direction would have really helped to tie this universe together. sadly, ego's incursion on earth never earnedso much as a nod in these other marvel properties, and in guardians 2, no other mcu charactersever showed up to investigate the goo situation. the invincible milano we all know that star-lord has a very coolship.
the milano is fast, slick, comes loaded witha tape deck for all your soundtrack needs, and makes a hell of a mobile man-cave. "if i had a blacklight, this place would looklike a jackson pollock painting." but is the milano literally indestructible? the ship takes a pounding during this battlewith the sovereign's forces, in which dozens and dozens of ships fire point blank on theguardians. yet star-lord's ship weathers all that damage,when other ships have gone down with just a shot or two. how does the milano survive this veritableonslaught of laser fire while still maintaining
enough integrity to stumble toward a crashlanding? in this case, the answer is simple: plot armor— the same reason why stormtroopers have such terrible aim and james bond can somehowwin a fistfight with a henchman twice his size. if one direct hit could knock the hero's shipout of the sky, there would be no movie. thanks for watching! click the looper icon to subscribe to ouryoutube channel. and don't forget to check out all this coolstuff we know you'll love too.
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